Education and qualifications

• 2003–2006      PhD in Computer Science, Hamilton Institute, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland
• 2000–2002      Masters in Eng. (2-year programme) in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, University of Tehran (Iran)
• 1994–1999      Bachelors in Eng. (4-year programme) in Computer Hardware Engineering, University of Amirkabir (Tehran, Iran)

Career overview

• September 2015 - present   Honorary contracted researcher in Public Health Highlands 
• July 2014- Aug 2015            Honorary contracted researcher in Public Health Wales 
• Jan 2015– April 2015           Visiting Professor in University of Grenoble (Engineering Human Computer Interaction Group)
• June 2013-Jan 2017            Associate Professor, HCI, Computer Science Department, Swansea University
• March 2007-June 2013        Assistant Professor, HCI Computer Science Department, Swansea University
• Oct 2006- Feb 2007             Research fellow, Hamilton Institute, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland
• April 2003-Oct 2006             Research assistant/PhD student, Hamilton Institute, National University of Ireland, Maynooth

Anrhydeddau a Dyfarniadau

• British Science Festival 2016 team: Modelling Activity using Real-time Sensors (MARS): How long does it take to burn off a MARS bar, video
• Best paper awards in ACM conferences (ICDL 2010, ECDL 2009 and Mobile HCI 2009)
• Ranked second in RoboFesta-2001 (Robot Festival Games - Partner Robots, 23-25 Nov, Yokohama, Japan)

Aelodaethau proffesiynol

• HEA fellowship 
• EPSRC Associate Peer Review College member, 2016- present
• Member of College of Experts, Welsh Government, July 2015- present

Ymrwymiadau siarad cyhoeddus

1. Science Café Seminars series in Dylan Thomas Centre, Robotics in the Future of Our Society, panel member and speaker on human-robot interaction, Swansea, February 2016
2. Attitudes towards Attention and Ageing: What differences between younger and older adults tell us about mobile technology design, Invited Talk at the Mobiquitous Lab, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, June 2015
3. Applications of technologies which are available everywhere but almost invisible to their users, Invited Talk in Repair, Re-ablement, Rehabilitation and Recovery Seminar Series at School of Healthcare, Cardiff University, July 2015
4. Walking as a social physical activity, three UbiComp Studies, Invited Talk Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK, March 2014
5. Optimal design for number entry, lessons from engineering, Invited Talk Kochi University of Technology and University of Osaka, Japan, June 2013
6. Behavioural Nudge to Promote Walking with an Always-on Smartphone Application, Invited Talk, Kochi University of Technology and University of Tsukuba, Kochi, Tsukuba, Japan, June 2013
7. Lessons Learned from bActive Inter-disciplinary DE funded, Birmingham University, Invited Lecture at Computer Science Department, Birmingham University, 9th of April 2013
8. Ubiquitous Technologies and Physical Activity Behaviour Change, Invited Lecture at Psychology Department, Manchester University, 7th of March 2013
9. Physical Activity Behaviour Change with Personal Mobile Displays, Invited Lecture at Computer Science Department, Aberystwyth University, 14th of March 2012
10. Shape Physical Activity Behaviour with Mobile Phones, Invited lecture, Computer Science Dept, Open University, Milton Keynes, May 2010
11. Shape Physical Activity Behaviour with Personal Mobile Displays, Talk, Glaxo Smith Kline, Surrey, October 2009
12. Making sense of Tilt Interaction, Invited speaker in Knowledge Media Institute, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK, August 2007
13. Zooming and Scrolling Interfaces, Making Sense of Interaction, Invited talk, SHARP research lab, Oxford Science Park, Oxford, England, September 2006
14. Continuous Multimodal Interaction with Mobile Devices, Invited talk, SONY Computer Science Research Institute, Paris, France, August 2005

Pwyllgorau ac adolygu

1. Head of the MEng Computer Science Students, 2010 – Jan 2017 @ Swansea University.
2. Head of the Advance masters in Human-Computer Interaction, 2012 – 2014 @ Swansea University.
3. Head of the Masters with Research in Future Interaction Technologies, 2012-2014 @ Swansea University.
4. Swansea University Athena SWAN committee member: 2008- 2009.
5. Member of Research Committee, College of Science, Swansea University 2012-2015.
6. Engineering and ICCT liaison officer: 2008 - Jan 2017 @ Swansea University.
7. British Computer Society (BCS) Accreditation liaison officer: 2009 - Jan 2017 @ Swansea University.

Invitations for International Programme Committee (IPC)/Peer Reviewing/Refereeing of Publications and Grant Applications

1. Associate Chair (AC) at the ACM conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2017
2. AC at the ACM conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2016
3. 6th International Workshop on Human Behavior Understanding (HBU) at UBICOMP'15, Programme Committee (PC) member, 2015
4. The ACM conference on Mobile HCI, PC member, 2015
5. Dagstuhl seminar on “Life-long health behavior-change Technologies”, Germany, invited guest, June 2015
6. The ACM conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM 2015), PC member, 2015
7. The Scandinavian Conference on Information System (SCIS), PC member, 2015
8. Panel member, Doctoral Consortium, Mobile HCI 2014
9. Reviewer for Cancer Charity, Tenovus, UK
10. Reviewer for National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)
11. Reviewer for the Royal Society-the UK’s National Academy of Science (royalsociety.org)
12. The ACM journal of TOCHI journal, reviewer
13. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (IJHCS), reviewer
14. International Journal of Mobile Human-Computer Interaction (IJMHCI), reviewer
15. Elsevier Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing Reviewer (PUC), reviewer, guest editor
16. The Journal of Computer Science and Technology (JCST), reviewer
17. Chairing Doctoral Consortium at Pervasive Health 2013
18. Chairing workshops at Mobile HCI 2012
19. Chairing videos UbiComp 2012
20. The ACM conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM 2013), PC member, 2013
21. The ACM conference on Pervasive Health 2012, PC member
22. The ACM conference on UbiComp 2011, PC member
23. The ACM conference/workshops on CHI, reviewer since 2009
24. The ACM conference on Mobile Human-Computer Interaction (Mobile HCI), reviewer since 2005
25. The ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, reviewer 2008,2009
26. The ACM conference on wearable computing conference ISWC 2010, reviewer
27. The ACM conference Tangible Embedded Interaction (TEI) and INTERACT, reviewer since 2008
28. The first ACM International Workshop on Mobile Systems for Computational Social Science, Lake District, UK 2012, PC member
29. Programme Chair, CHARM conference, London, UK, 27th of February 2013
30. Second CHI+MED summer workshop co-organiser (with Dr Karen Li), engaging with the designers, Swansea August 2011
31. The ACM workshop on Dynamic & Continuous Computer-Human Interaction: Human and Computers around a loop (DACCHI 2013 at EICS 2013), Organiser
32. The ACM workshop on Persuasion, Influence, Nudge and Coercion through mobile devices (PINC 2011 @ CHI 2011), Organiser
33. The ACM workshop on Nudge & Influence through Mobile Devices (NIMD’10 @ MobileHCI 2010), Organiser

• Date
• Type
• Selected

Courses/modules taught:

My teaching is linked to National Software Academy (NSA). I teach Emerging Technologies (CM6321) to 3rd year undergraduate students at NSA.  

This module aims to provide the students with a wider understanding of a number of emerging technologies (mega trends) that are expected to be commercially successful and adopted by a range of users in the future. Students will focus on establishing an understanding of the key drivers for the trends and potential applications of the technology. I am the module leader and in collaboration with industry as a team we determine projects for this module. 

Topic areas that I would like to supervise in:

• Mobile/Wearable Human-Computer Interaction
• Dynamic Continuous Interaction
• Physical Activity
• Mental health and well being
• Ubiquitous Interaction
• Tangible Interaction
• Sonification

University initiatives I currently contribute to:

1- NSA Year 3 tutor

2- A member of School Seminars Organisers team 

Current Projects

I am currenly leading a research with Sports Scientists in Swansea University on 3D modeling and printing of physical activity (PA) in school children. My main responsibility in this project is designing 3D digital models of children's interpretation of PA and government's guideline on PA for this age group. This research is a follow on project, which build on the research findings, experiences and collaborations arising from Modelling Activity using Real-time Sensors (MARS): How long does it take to burn off a MARS bar a British Science Festival runner in 2016. MARS was showcased at British Science Festival (Sept 2016) and it brought Sports Scientists, BioScientists, Computer Scientists and Engineers together Video.

I have been the Co-Investigator (CoI) in an EPSRC funded project CHARM (ref EP/H006966/1). As a leading researcher I and the team developed a smartphone application called bActive, which applied and tested the theory of social feedback in physical activity (PA) behaviour change through a randomised control trial. Such interventions also offer the opportunity for applying control engineering and system identification concepts in behavioral change settings. One approach is using a fluid dynamic model to assess a computational model of Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). A semi-physical system identification approach is developed in Arizona State University (ASU) and ESPOL (Equador) for interventions associated with improving PA using a semi-physical parameter estimation procedure where input-output data from an experiment under real-life circumstances must be collected. To gain a deeper insight into the use of social feedback in PA interventions and how this cue could be designed more successfully in bActive and similar apps, I am leading a follow on research on the bActive RCT where the input and output data from the RCT is used to test the prediction ability of the SCT model. 

My overarching professional goal is to use innovative technology (including embedded sensors) in applications with large-scale social and human impact.

In summary my research interests are in:

• Mobile Human-Computer Interaction
• Dynamic Continuous Interaction
• Physical Activity
• Mental health and well being
• Ubiquitous Interaction
• Tangible Interaction
• Sonification

Successful Funding Applications (selected)

2016	Principle Investigator (PI) in Research Impact Fund (IAA) grant “Chronic Back Pain Management in Communities Using Portable Sensors”
2015-2018	Co-Investigator (CoI) in NISCHR Brain Repair And Intracranial Neurotherapeutics- Wales BRAIN Unit
2014-2018	CoI in NISCHR PhD studentship award in Social Care: The development and evaluation of an online emotional wellbeing module in the Champions for Health programme to complement and enhance lifestyle improvements.
2014	Strategic Insight Programme fund, Secondment in Public Health Wales
2014	Travel fund to visit University of Grenoble
2013-2014	CoI in “Bridging The Gaps: Computer-based measures of attentional function in ageing and dementia”
2013	Wales European Collaboration Fund to visit Japan
2009-2012	CoI in Digital Economy (DE) Sandpit Project CHARM: “Digital technology: shaping consumer behaviour by informing conceptions of 'normal' practice” (ref EP/H006966/1).
2009-2015	EPSRC Programme Grant CHI+MED: “Multidisciplinary Computer-Human Interaction research for the design and safe use of interactive medical devices”  (ref EP/G059063/1).
2008-2011	CoI in EPSRC Platform Grant FIT Lab/UCLIC PLATFORM: "Healthy interactive systems: Resilient, Usable and Appropriate Systems in Healthcare” (ref EP/G003971).